Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1898 — As Traffic Shifts and Changes. [ARTICLE]

As Traffic Shifts and Changes.

Beyond question the London driver is the best in the world, writes Walter Wellman in Chicago Times-Herajd. He knows his business through and through. He is never nervous, and never makes his horse nervous. He rarely uses the whip. He is quiet and steady and alert. He takes chances that amaze his passengers—slipping through narrow openings, where hub grazes hub. But the bubs never come into collision. One may stay in London a week without seeing a street accident, notwithstanding the wonderful congestion of traffic, the apparently inextricable maze of horses and vehicles in the narrow thoroughfares. If a driver gets into trouble once through; his own fault he is fined and warned. The second time his license is taken away from him, and he is never allow-, ed to drive again on the streets. Be-, fore London di-ivers are given their licenses, they are required to pass a civil service examination. They are taken into a yard where there are many posts set up in the pavement, and required to drive in and around these obstacles. They are asked what street they would take in order to go from one place to another at ten o’clock In the morning, at one In the afternoon, and at four o’clock. Unless they are able to tell the best routes all over the city at various times of the day—indicating the thoroughfares which are least congested as the traffic shifts and changes, a license is denied them.